Ukraine crisis continued – violence approaching?

3:20pm: Another new site in support of Ukranian democracy (sorry – link corrected – should have pointed to the Ukranian Democracy site), plus more blogs weigh in:

Chrenkoff notes that the “Western European political class has done preciously little to help Eastern and Central Europe liberate itself in 1989/2001 (not to mention stop the war in its own Balkan backyard) – so why start now?”

Johann Norberg wonders “Where are the concerned European politicians who should condemn the fraud, and who could be with these crowds to show their support? And where are the “human shields”? A lot of young westerners were willing to risk their lives to stop the war on Iraq. Arenï¿½t they willing to risk some discomfort to stop one of Europeï¿½s biggest countries from slipping back to dictatorship?”

LoboWalk finds some pictures of Yanukovich supporters and troops – the first I’ve seen. The fact that we’ve heard little from the other half of the population has been worrying me…

3:40pm: Oh joy, from Victor “According to korrespondent.net, ex-president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of military crimes and genicide, greeted the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yanukovich on the ‘victory in the elections’.”

In more welcome support, President Kwasniewski of Poland – the birthplace of the Solidarity movement – is flying to Kiev to act as the EU’s intermediary in talks, according to Bloomberg.

Disaster could yet be averted.

3:50pm: ten minutes from the reported time that the troops could move in…

Instapundit is providing a few more links, including to SueAndNotU, apparently an official election observer, who notes:

“the denizens of flashy cosmopolitan Kyiv may not be seen as representative of the demos writ large. On the other hand, we’re talking about an enormous gathering, and sympathetic demonstrations in major cities across the country. The military’s a wild card, they’re armed to the teeth, and with an outgoing president, a president who supposedly won the election, and a president with rallying hordes that has taken the oath of office, they don’t know who to take orders from. Chaos is not unimaginable.”

“Thousands of people in epaulets, dozens of army units and organs of the Interior Ministry have already given their word. Theyï¿½re all with the Ukrainian people. On the side of the people ï¿½ the place of every honest person…

“The criminals want to send you to the barricades. There wonï¿½t be found there the sons of those who are pushing you into bloodshed. Theyï¿½re running away. But weï¿½re staying with you, weï¿½re building a new Ukraine. The country needs your honesty, your experience, and your professionalism…

“just saw thousands of berkut police from kharkhiv and donetsk, as well as thousands of coal miners, start walking in down lesi ukrainky blvd. in the direction of the central election headquarters.

lesi ukraini leads to bessarabsky rynok and the start of khreshchatyk, which is filled with about 100,000 yushchenko supporters.

i think a riot is imminent.”

4:55pm: The BBC’s ticker-tape is confirming Fistful‘s report from 4:30 that the Election Committee has declared Yanukovych the winner. I’d laid off posting that until I had confirmation – this could explain the reports in the last couple of updates…

Yanukovych 49,46%
Yushchenko 45,61%
11 members of the Comission voted for this decision.

“the Supreme Court has refused to consider Yushchenko’s plea about the falsification of the preliminary results of the elections.

“in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, people are being arrested for supporting Yushchenko… This is what is awaiting Ukrainian people, too. This is coming. All legal ways of resolving the situation have been exhausted.

“I just wonder how these bastards are going to run a country where all the people is so strongly against them? It’s ridiculous.”

The pro-Yushchenko demonstrators are marching on the Election Committee’s headquarters… This is not good.

“It could not be more humiliating. At some point, someone from the opposition complained that one of the pro-Yanukovych thugs hit someone from the opposition “between the legs.”

The results are the following:

30,511,289 people took part in the election
488,022 of the bulletins were cancelled
15,093,691 (49.46%) people voted for Yanukovych
14,222,289 (46.61%) people voted for Yushchenko
707,284 (2.31%) people voted against both candidates

Yanukovych supporters got up and began applauding when the commission signed the final protocol. They were also shouting: Yanukovych! Yanukovych! Yanukovych! None of their faces except one were recognizable to me: Grigoriy Surkis, president of Dynamo Kyiv football team, was the only one I know. They were also waving those blue flags of Yanukovych campaign.

They discussed a few other issues but I wasn’t listening. The opposition was protesting loudly from their corner but the commission members went on with their business, ignoring the protests.

At the very end, the opposition AND some journalists were shouting very loudly: Hanba! (Shame!) and Yushchenko!

Bloomberg summarises the international implications of the US/Eu vs. Russia divisions over these elections.

Victor continues to report at The Periscope: “obozrevatel.com has published an audiorecording of phone talks of Yanukovich headquarters. The recording witnesses that Yanukovich headquarters totally controlled the the elections and vote count on both rounds. Absentee abllots, closed polls, voting at home, etc. Yanukovych team consistently achieved the necessary results. They knew the exact number of absentee ballots, off-the-poll votes, and other manipulations were compared to the results of the exit polls, thus they could plan a comparatively precise result in advance.”

“always hate to get it wrong, but the drama of the central election commission (cec) session and the sight of the goons, thousands of them, walking towards the cec shocked me. that’s what i thought, at least, when i watched the file by from my window on the 5th floor. perspective changed when i got a chance to get there and talk with them… ivan tavhen, an out-of-work 42-year old father of two from makieevka, donetsk oblast, said he was told it was a one day trip… “i’m not infatuated by yushchenko and can use an extra hr. 200,” he said. they are going back to their buses now.”

7:24pm: Sod it – might as well plug this… If you’ve liked my coverage, please consider voting for this blog in the BOBs, where it has been nominated as “Best Journalistic Blog (English). Thanks!

7:50pm: The UK’s Channel 4 News has live footage of bands playing in central Kiev – a party atmosphere. But just around the corner are a mass of police – the loyalties of which are unclear. Channel 4 News is also reporting that Yanukovych is calling for unity and talks. TulipGirl summarises the other new developments.

The US has a well developed strategy for regime change in the countries of the former USSR.

This strategy has resources behind it. In addition, as part of this strategy, political parties and accompanying youth movements, which will take upon themselves the force of any blows in the case of street demonstrations.

In Yugoslavia, this organisation was ï¿&frac12;Otporï¿&frac12;, in Georgia, ï¿&frac12;Kmaraï¿&frac12; and in Ukraine, ï¿&frac12;Poraï¿&frac12;. These movements have one more task ï¿&frac12; to ensure visible electoral fraud.

In Georgia, this was a large scale web of lies involving voter lists. Lists, as it happens,prepared by Shakashvilli. (The Pro-US candidate ï¿&frac12; translator) In the first round of Ukranian elections, there were also significant problems with lists. Particularly in the Western provinces. (the primary areasof support for Yushchenko – translator)

No one doubts there was significant falsification in the course of these elections. And it should be said, from one side and the other. There is the additional question of which side has coked the books more. If the EU election observers insist that the matter needs to be investigated, the US is unambiguously blaming Kuchma and Yanukovich.

This too,is all part of that same strategy.
The main goal of which is to reverse the results. At this moment,no one is interested in celebrating the festival of democracy, such as it is.

At the moment,Yanukovich is being blamed for a suspiciously high percentage of support in Donetsk province ï¿&frac12; 96%.

But when Sakashvilli became president of Georgia, with 97% of the votes, the US was silent about the fact the several million Georgians had been excluded from that poll.

They spoke about the blossoming of democracy.

Itï¿&frac12;s clear that Americans are rational people.

They didnï¿&frac12;t invest in the election, to let the whole thing turn into a fiasco over a couple of percentage points.

Russian also invested money in Yanukovich.

But will Russia also announce a boycott of Ukraine, if Yushchenko assumes the throne?